Last night I began installing Goodridge stainless steel lines on the rear. After getting the rear driver's side installed I noticed the potential for some serious rubbing between the radius arm and the new ss line (see Pic 1). Inspecting the rear passenger side, I found that there was plenty of clearance (Pic 2).

I could check the clearance through the range of motion by compressing the rear suspension. I used a floor jack to and raised the rear driver's spring bucket and then lowered it while watching the clearance. It got worse as the suspension returned to the uncompressed state and ended up touching the rear camber arm.

Not confident with the installation I removed the Goodridge line and reinstalled the OEM rubber hose. When put back in place the rubber hose had >1" clearance.

The differences between the OEM rubber hose and the Goodridge SS line are as follows:
-The OEM rubber hose can bend the close to the brass block.
-The Goodridge SS line has a 1.25" rigid straight piece that is between the SS braided line and the brass block, this prevent its from turning away from the radius arm.

Has anyone else run into this issue? Would someone mind checking their Goodridge SS lines and reporting how much clearance?


PS: what is regular name for the radius arm? traction bar, or camber arm?

 

Anyone.... someone?

 

Op requested this to be moved to the coupe folder since no action in the brake folder. Anyone chime in??

I'll move it back in a couple days FWIW.

 

Ive had no issues to date with my SS lines from stop tech, but my previous lines actually rubbed against something in the rear and I lost all brakes in the rear.

 

Yikes, I'll take a peek at my old lines for any evidence of rubbing.

The Stoptech lines are quite a bit different than the Goodridge ones.

 

Got a response from Goodridge!
I'll be trying option 1 soon. I am not 100% confident it will be enough though.

 

Okay, rear lines were installed with the line rotated to give maximum clearance to the radius rod. I also, bent the gently bent the bracket that holds the brass block to help with clearance.

Bled the brakes, minimum 5 cycles on each bleeder (rear only today). Surprisingly little air came out, looked like most of it came out on the first pump. Each caliper let out ~40 mL of brake fluid. Should I be bleeding even more?

Brake pedal feel is a teeny weeny bit more solid than with the old rubber lines. Honestly not as big of an improvement as I thought it would be. Also, initial bite isn't drastically different (new StopTech pads and rotors up front, no change in the rear).

Edit: Pics!

 

Did you bed-in the pads as per Stoptechs recommendation?
Stock Brake System Bed-in
If you're bubble free and have solid pedal feel you should be good as far as amount of bleeding.

 

Yessir, they were bedded the day they were installed, even got the nice blue rotors

I guess my question is how solid is solid pedal feel? The harder I press, the more travel there, and the more resistance I feel. This is good imo. I feel like there is a small amount of travel before any braking action begins. When braking action does begin, it doesn't throw me outta of my seat (like my father's Honda Accord), but I do have good modulation. I suppose my G has always been like this.

 

From your descriptions it sounds like the pedal feel is what it should be, if you had air in the lines you'd feel a more vague spongy feel and more pedal travel than you had before.
You should notice better bite once the rotors are warmed up, not drastic but noticeable. As far as overall stopping power, where these really shine is in extended use, the heat-sinking from the larger calipers/rotors will allow consistent braking when the heat would really fade smaller brake sets.

This is about all you can expect from a street pad/heavy rotor setup, which is pretty damn good for a DD.

BTW, if you just added fluid you might want to do a complete fluid flush after another 10k miles (depending on how many miles are on your old fluid)

 

How does one "flush" brake fluid?

If its just bleed 10-20 cycles per corner, then I am probably close to 10 cycles per bleeder valve over the past 3 weeks. I've been through a little over 3 Nissan bottles (3x350ml = 1150ml). A little went through the clutch system as well.

 

If you're running old fluid it will be dark, just bleed until you're running clean out of each bleeder. Sounds like you've pretty much done that

 

Yep, the fluid coming out wasn't noticeably different than new fluid.

I remember the first time I bled my brakes after getting my car. Lots of small bubbles, dirty looking fluid on the first pump. I figure they had never been bled in the previous owner's ownership (~3.5 years). A little disappointing considering the front pads had been replaced during that time, guess not all dealers bleed the brakes a little.


EDIT October 20, 2014: 4 months later, the lines have no evidence that they have been rubbing.